Deja Vous!

September 09, 2013

This was going to be my second trip to Kingston. This time to attend what we call "Family Christmas" at my cousin's house. Basically it is an annual Family reunion that is held the weekend after Labor Day every year. The last time I took this trip there was bad weather and no wind. This time, guess what? Same thing! Only this time I had company. My Brother in law was going to Enjoy this non-sailing trip with me.

We planned to leave Friday Morning so we spent Thursday night on the boat. The weather was particularly nasty that night, with lots of rain and thunder and Lightning, and was only moderately better in the morning. There was the Fog again! We had to wait until close to 11 am for it to clear enough to leave. And is was raining! Well this is Washington after all. This even caused my Sister Sharon, who is married to my BIL Lynn who was accompanying me on this trip, to put a fairly sarcastic comment on facebook saying we were crazy and that people should pray for us... LOL... So I donned my Foulies and braced for a day of bad weather. We busied ourselves with work like adding a bit more air to the Dingy and adding a float for the tow line, and stowing all the provisions.. My Bro even had time to go to Starbucks before we left!

Rain gear time!

Fog ahead


and fog behind... at lease we can see the Tacoma Dome

On the way out, it looked pretty much exactly like it did last time. Lots of fog and rain. I thought the rain was going last all day, but by the time we got to Des Moines, it stopped. Heck, the sun even came out later! So I guess all the prayers worked! Thanks Guys!

My Bro steering while I... am down below!(staying dry! LOL!)

My new modification to the towing harness... a buoy that I found on the bay right in the middle.... it worked GREAT

Hey.... we should use the Sails for SOMETHING, eh?

Commercial Traffic in the East Passage

We figured that Bow wake was at LEAST 8 feet tall

Cruisers on their way to Alaska!

We got to Blake Island , Motoring all the way, because there was NO wind, and after playing Dodge-Ferry and seeing some pretty big commercial traffic along the way. That night, we were treated to another spectacular sunset... again a bit of Deja Vous from the first trip!

Another Fantastic Sunset at Blake Island!

Morning At Blake Island... a bit of surreal fog.

We left Early the next Morning, because we had a deadline. I wanted to be in Kingston before noon, so we could shower before going to Family Christmas. It all went very well, and we pulled into Kingston around 11:45 am, Got our showers and were right on time to get picked up by my Cuz!

Motoring to Kingston... again No wind!

The reunion was great, and we got back to the Marina, relaxed a bit with a bit of Cribbage (I beat my bro several times in a row... of course he did the same to me the night before!). By the way, I LOVE the Kingston Marina! it was a great stay both times I stayed there, and very reasonable rates, with FREE showers and WiFi. The next day, we watched the Seahawks play a pre-season game at the local pub, and then headed out to Blake Island after filling up with diesel.

Yet another Great Sunset!

Another great night at Blake Island, another great sunset. The next day we decided to go back via Colvos Passage, as the tide was going to be with us. However, our progress through the passage was disappointingly slow. It wasn't until much later that I found out that the water in that passage generally always runs to the north, no matter which way the tide is running. So I will file that away for future reference.